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Chapter 2 The Internet, Digital Media, and Media Convergence

1.
The Internet, Digital
Media, and Media
Convergence
CHAPTER 2

2.
Digital Media and Convergence
 In less than 15 years, we have moved from a world in which each type of
media was consumed separately and in its own distinct format to a world
in which we can experience every form of mass media content—books,
music, newspapers, television, video games—on almost any internet-
connected device
 The Digital Turn– ever-growing download speeds and the development of
more portable devices have fundamentally changed the ways in which we
access and consume media

3.
Digital Transactions
 People can use their smartphones to conduct monetary transactions
 The goal is to eliminate credit card companies and their high fees

4.
The Internet
 The vast network of telephone and cable lines, wireless connections, and
satellite systems designed to link and carry digital information worldwide,
was initially described as an information superhighway
 Do you remember your first experience with the internet?
 How has the internet changed since your first experience with it?

6.
The Birth of the Internet
 Started out in the 1960s as a military communication network
 ARPAnet: Enabled military and academic researchers to communicate on a
distributed network system
1. Created a wired network so users could log on from multiple locations
whenever they needed to
2. Packet switching broke down messages/information into smaller pieces
which would be reassembled at the other end

7.
The Birth of the Internet
 One of the most hierarchically structured and centrally organized
institutions (the military) created the internet, possibly one of the least
hierarchical and most decentralized networks ever conceived
 Every computer/user has equal status
 Nobody can be kicked off
 Nobody has a power switch

8.
The Net Widens
 1970s and 1980s
 Microprocessors are invented that allow people to have personal
computers
 1986 NSFNET allows university research computers around the country to
be linked, as well as allows home users to become invested in the internet
 Fiber-optic cable makes information transmission much faster and basically
unlimited information can be transferred

9.
The Commercialization of the Internet
 Mosaic and Netscape were the first browsers
 The World Wide Web was the internet available to everyone
 The internet quickly became commercialized, leading to corporations vying
for the most users

10.
The World Begins to Browse
 Tim Berners-Lee at the CERN particle physics lab in Switzerland develops
the World Wide Web in order to help scientists better collaborate
 WWW was originally a data-linking system that allowed computer-
accessed information to link to other information no matter where it was
on the internet (this is known as hypertext)
 HTML is the written code language that creates web pages and links
 The Web and HTML allow information to be organized in an easy-to-use,
nonlinear way

11.
The World Begins to Browse
 Web browsers are software packages that help users navigate the web
 Mosaic and then Netscape were the first browsers (1993-1994)
 Microsoft released Internet Explorer in 1995
 IE was brilliantly bundled with other Microsoft products, quickly making it
the most-used browser

12.
Users Link in through Telephone and
Cable Wires
 AOL was the top ISP (internet service provider)
 As broadband become more accessible, people moved away from phone-line
access
 In the U.S. there is little competition in the broadband market
 Only 9 percent of Americans have access to 3 or more ISPs
 Compared to other internet countries, American users pay more money for
lower speeds

13.
People Embrace Digital
Communication
 Digital Communication: An image, text, or sound is converted into
electronic signals represented by binary numbers, which are then
reassembled as a precise reproduction
 Email was one of the first popular uses of the internet
 People used to use the email address associated with their ISP
(@bellsouth.net, @cox.com, @shawathome.net)
 Instant messaging:

14.
Search Engines Organize the Web
 I remember the first time I used Google (the year was 2000)
 In 1994 the web had only about 22,000 sites
 Yahoo! was the dominant web browser
 Search engines allowed users to enter keywords to search
 In 2014, Google said in indexed 60 trillion web pages, up from 1 billion in 2000

16.
Social Media
 Social Media: New digital media platforms that engage users to create
content, add comments, and interact with others
 Social media have also become a new distribution system for media as
well, challenging the one-to-many model of traditional mass media with
the many-to-many model of social media

17.
Blogs
 Years before status updates, blogs enabled people to easily post their
ideas to a Web site
 Blogs contain articles or posts in chronological, journal-like form, often
with reader comments and links to other sites
 Most popular form of blogging now is microblogging (Twitter)

26.
The Impact of Media Convergence and
Mobile Media
 Media consumption is mobile and flexible
 We don’t have to miss out on media content just because we weren’t
home in time to catch a show, didn’t find the book at the bookstore, or
forgot to buy the newspaper yesterday
 Traditional media companies have had to dramatically change their
business models in order to satisfy demands and stay relevant

27.
Our Changing Relationship with the
Media
 Social Viewing: Sharing commentary with friends on social media while you
are viewing a TV event
 Shows like Game of Thrones and Mad Men have found audiences beyond
their initial broadcasts through streaming services (binge-watching) and
audiences spreading word-of-mouth praise
 Super Bowl XLVII watchers generated 24.9 million tweets during the
broadcast

28.
Our Changing Relationship with the
Internet
1. Apple now makes more than five times as much money selling iPhones,
iPads, iPods, and accessories as it does selling computers
2. The number of Facebook users (1.23 billion in 2014) keeps rising
 Apps have changed the internet experience from a wide-open, web
browser experience to one managed by apps
 What Facebook milestone did we hit last fall?

29.
The Changing Economics of Media and
the Internet
 Since Napster (1999) each media industry has struggled to rethink how to
distribute its content for the digital age
 Content is still important, but it must be digital
Apple starts selling music, Amazon creates the Kindle

30.
The Next Era: The Semantic Web
 Semantic Web: Creating a more meaningful and more organized Web
 Make our lives even easier by placing information into categories—family,
friends, calendars, mutual interests, locations—and make significant
connections for us
 Better enable people and computers to work together

32.
Economics of the Internet
 Telecommunications Act of 1996: Overhauled the nation’s communications
regulations, including regional and long-distance phone companies and
cable operators
 No one owns the internet
 Ownership and control of the internet are connected to three things:
1. The security of personal and private information
2. The appropriateness of online materials
3. The accessibility and openness of the internet

33.
Ownership: Controlling the Internet
 The leading companies of digital media’s rapidly changing world
 Facebook is the only company here that does not operate cloud services,
which ultimately builds brand loyalty and generates customer fees for file
storage

34.
Microsoft
 The oldest of the dominant digital firms
 Software business is in a gradual decline
 Flourishing digital game business
 Office is now available on mobile devices

36.
Apple
 Started as a home computer company, now the most valuable company in
the world
 Moderately successful until Steve Jobs returned in 2001, in 2003 iTunes
and the iPod were launched

37.
Amazon
 Started selling books online, now the world’s largest online retailer

38.
Facebook
 Because of all the information revealed, Facebook can sell extraordinarily
detailed information to advertisers

39.
Targeted Advertising and Data Mining
 Data mining: Gathering users’ location and purchasing habits
 E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods and services on the internet
 Cookies: Information profiles that are automatically collected and
transferred between computer servers
 Spyware: Information-gathering software that is often secretly bundled
with free downloaded software
 Moved to Hattiesburg, posted it on Facebook, now I only see ads for
furniture and home décor (Overstock.com)

40.
Fair Information Practice Principles
1. Websites must disclose their data-collection practices
2. Websites must give consumers the option to choose whether their data
may be collected and to provide information on how that data is
collected
3. Websites must permit individuals access to their records to ensure data
accuracy
4. Websites must secure personal data from unauthorized use
Unfortunately, the FTC has no power to enforce these principles

41.
Security: The Challenge to Keep
Personal Information Private
 Government surveillance, online fraud, and unethical data-gathering
methods have become common, making the internet a potentially
treacherous place

42.
Government Surveillance
 Since the inception of the internet, government agencies worldwide have
obtained communication logs, web browser histories, and the online
records of individual users who thought their online activities were private
 USA PATRIOT Act: Grants sweeping powers to law-enforcement agencies
to intercept individuals’ online communications
 Designed to thwart terrorists, but critics note that it is too vaguely worded

43.
Online Fraud
 Identity theft: The illegal obtaining of personal credit card and identity
information in order to fraudulently spend other people’s money
 Phishing: Phony email messages that appear to be from official web sites
asking customers to update their credit card numbers, account passwords,
and other personal information

44.
Appropriateness: What Should Be
Online?
 Eliminating some forms of sexual content from books, films, TV, and other
media remains a top priority for many politicians and public interest
groups
 Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000: Requires schools and libraries
that receive federal funding for internet access to use software that filters
out any visual content deemed obscene, pornographic, or harmful to
minors, unless disabled at the request of adult users
 Sites that carry potentially dangerous information (bomb-building, hate
speech) have incited calls for internet censorship
 Many people want the web to be completely unregulated

45.
Access: The Fight to Prevent a Digital
Divide
 Digital Divide: The growing contrast between the “information haves”—
those who can afford to purchase computers and pay for internet services,
and the “information have-nots”—those who may not be able to afford a
computer or pay for internet services
 The rising use of smart phones is helping to narrow the digital divide
 Even as the internet matures and becomes more accessible, wealthy users
are still more able to buy higher levels of privacy and faster speeds of
access

46.
Net Neutrality: Maintaining an Open
Internet
 Net Neutrality: The principle that every web site and every user—whether a
multinational corporation or you—has the right to the same internet
network speed and access
 Major telephone and cable companies control 98% of broadband access in
the U.S.
 They only want to offer faster connections and priority to clients willing to
pay higher rates and provide preferential service for their own content or
for content providers who make special deals with them—effectively
eliminating net neutrality
 No net neutrality? You would get charged more for using Netflix, YouTube,
Hulu, or iTunes

47.
Net Neutrality: Maintaining an Open
Internet
 2014, Netflix (which accounts for 30 percent of internet traffic) paid Comcast
for faster connection to its service, meaning better service for customers
 This undercut content providers’ collective backing of net neutrality
 Supporters of net neutrality—including educators, small businesses, bloggers
etc.—argue that cable giants can rig their services and cause congestion,
forcing customers to pay more for higher-speed connections
 Big companies will be able to pay up, but smaller start-ups couldn’t,
undermining the internet’s spirit of equality and discouraging digital
entrepreneurs

48.
Alternative Voices
 The pioneering spirit of the internet’s independent early days endures
 The internet continues to be a participatory medium in which anyone can
be involved
 Two of the most prominent areas in which alternative voices continue to
flourish:
1. Open-source software
2. Digital archiving

49.
Open-Source Software
 Open-source software: Programmers openly share source codes; a
collective effort
 Microsoft put an end to much of this in the 1970s by turning software
development into a business

50.
Digital Archiving
 Librarians have worked tirelessly to build nonprofit digital archives that
exist outside of any commercial system in order to preserve libraries’
tradition of open access to information
 Internet Archive houses more than 150 billion archived web pages
 Also includes text, images, audio, and software